[mercury under my tongue]

By Sylvain Trudel
Recommended by the New York Times Book Review

Seventeen and dying of terminal cancer. This is a novel. The language is very languid, fluid and heady. It is not so much emotion drawn out of you as the reader but thought. Questions swirl through the pages.

What have I done with my (not so) short life? What is accomplishment, true satisfaction, and contribution (or choosing not to contribute)? What is living life to its fullest? And what if your version is vastly different from those who love you?

One of my favorite side trips in this book is the stark look at being terminally ill and how you feel almost like a side show at a carnival (a freak show). The brutal honesty with which the writer writes about the heavy burden of others' pity, guilt, sadness and pain. The cold reality that often the one undergoing this horrific experience is suddenly the one asked to comfort those around them. Is that the right thing to do? How would we each respond?

I also appreciate the existential questions, philosophical ruminating and religious outcry that takes place in this one small boys last days.

"Outside the winds are sobbing for no one and it's a waste of breath; and the December gusts are hurling snow and ice violently against the windowpanes. you might think they were whirlwinds of salt and the moans of a child, and tears blur my eyes when I think about how I've spent my life: I didn't realize how quickly I was in the process of losing everything; I didn't understand that every day that doesn't seem like much is one small cog in the great mechanism of universal loss." (pg. 122)

Book 12

http://www.amazon.com/Mercury-Under-My-Tongue-Novel/dp/1933368969